After accident, boy mourned at Gardner school

Saturday

Feb 8, 2014 at 6:00 AMFeb 8, 2014 at 4:31 PM

By Paula J. Owen and Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

GARDNER — Sadness covered the faces of young and old Friday as they stopped by the Elm Street Elementary School and a makeshift memorial of flowers and stuffed animals for 8-year-old Colby O'Brien. The boy died Thursday afternoon when a large television and cart fell on him.

A man in gray sweatpants visited the memorial at the school as the sun was setting. Making the sign of the cross, he affixed a religious medal on a gold chain to one of two American flags that had been stuck into the snow earlier. He paused to pray, then walked quietly back up Elm Street.

The memorial included candles, a package of Skittles candy, a DVD and a handwritten note from another mother that read, “May God be with your family when you need him the most. I've lost a child. My heart and prayers are with you.”

Some younger children who are grappling with the loss made cards and brought them to place near the teddy bears.

One, drawn in brightly colored markers, shows a boy standing on a rain cloud surrounded by balloons and happy and sad faces.

“I'm sorry of your pas away,” it reads.

David Mercier said Friday that when he picked up his 10-year-old son from a ski club trip at the school Thursday night. he was surprised to see police tape and officers all around.

“I said, 'Geez, this looks like a crime scene,' ” he said, adding that someone nearby told him what had happened.

The program Colby was participating in is the same one Mr. Mercier's 10-year-old son, Dylan, attends to do homework and arts and crafts when he's not skiing.

Dylan and his 5-year-old brother, Benjamin, stayed home Friday and selected special toys from their own stash to leave at the entrance to the school as part of the growing memorial to Colby.

There were notes from other students, memorial candles and plenty of stuffed animals left at the site by members of a community at a loss for ways to pay homage to the child.

A Gardner police cruiser was parked at the entrance to the school, and some parents picking up their children had-rimmed eyes as they loaded them into their cars to go home.

Anne Allen, a former Ashby librarian from Townsend, picked up her 9-year-old granddaughter from school earlier than usual Friday.

Ms. Allen said her daughter had asked if she could pick up her granddaughter early because she was upset.

“It is very sad,” Ms. Allen said. “I used to be a librarian and used to deal with TVs and stands all the time. I would always say to my kids, 'Don't climb on the bureaus.' It is very unfortunate, and very scary.”

Her granddaughter was friends with Colby and attended classes with him, she said.

Ms. Allen planned to spend a quiet afternoon with her granddaughter.

Danielle J. Thebeault, 38, of Gardner, who has four daughters in the district, ages 15, 14, 12 and 10, left a red Valentine's stuffed animal with a white rose in its mouth at the memorial by the sidewalk in front of the school. Her 10-year-old is in fourth grade at Elm Street Elementary.

“My oldest daughter in 10th grade told me about it last night,” she said. “She gets news alerts on her iPod. She told me a little boy from Elm Street passed away, but she didn't know how. Her friends told her later that a TV and TV stand fell on him. I cried last night.”

She said her kids often ask to attend after-school programs, but she is unable to provide transportation for it.

“I would feel bad that I would always have to tell them no, but now I'm glad they weren't going,” she said. “Me and my neighbor were talking about it until midnight last night.”

She said she faults school officials for not calling off school Friday.

“My daughter is 10 and wanted to know everything last night,” she said. “The kids are traumatized. It is heartbreaking and disturbing — there are no words for it.” She said she feels her daughters are safe because they are older.

Linda LaFreniere, 72, of Gardner, also picked up her 10-year-old grandson, Nathan, early. Nathan is in Grade 4 at Elm Street and has Asperger's syndrome, she said.

“His mother called me and said there was too much going on and he wanted to go home,” she said.

“He was overwhelmed and unable to cope with what is going on.”

Ms. LaFreniere, who has eight grandchildren, said she couldn't stop thinking about the accident.

Her daughter teaches second grade at the Helen Mae Sauter Elementary School, next door to Elm Street, she said, and they were at a basketball game with her Thursday night when they heard what had happened.

She said her daughter works with the mother of one of the staff — a college student — in the after-school program.

“My daughter was really concerned it was someone from her class or someone she had before,” she said. It turned out that it wasn't.

She said her daughter said the TVs are tightly tethered to the carts and that may be why both fell onto the boy.

“It is a tragedy,” she said.

The memorial outside the school is filled with stuffed animals, flowers, cards, candles, action figures and other items.

Melissa from You Inc. wrote on the front of a handmade card, “Thinking of you, Colby.” Then, inside, “As you journey to heaven too soon, please watch over your family and classmates.”

Contact Paula Owen at paula.owen@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @PaulaOwenTG.